Amazon Cloud Drive

Amazon's Cloud Drive isn't bad, and its storage options are inexpensive, but — like so many of these services &mdash it needs real operating system integration to be first-rate.

Published: February 25, 2013 -- 15:25 GMT (07:25 PST)

Photo by: ZDNet

Caption by: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Apple iCloud

Apple's iCloud tries to do everything for Apple users, but it doesn't do nearly as well at any single thing as we'd like.

Published: February 25, 2013 -- 15:25 GMT (07:25 PST)

Photo by: ZDNet

Caption by: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Box

Yes, Box offers cloud storage, but it's really more of a set of cloud-based business-collaboration and workflow tools than a pure cloud storage play. Of course, that may be exactly what you want.

Published: February 25, 2013 -- 15:25 GMT (07:25 PST)

Photo by: ZDNet

Caption by: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Dropbox

Dropbox was the first popular personal cloud storage service, and thanks to its integration with most popular operating system's file managers, it's still the best.

Published: February 25, 2013 -- 15:25 GMT (07:25 PST)

Photo by: ZDNet

Caption by: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Google Drive

Google Drive is closing ground on Dropbox — now if it just supported Linux natively. Besides storage, it also incorporates Google Docs.

Published: February 25, 2013 -- 15:25 GMT (07:25 PST)

Photo by: ZDNet

Caption by: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

MediaFire

If you can handle the ads and a few restrictions, it's hard to argue with MediaFire's 50GB of free storage.

Published: February 25, 2013 -- 15:25 GMT (07:25 PST)

Photo by: ZDNet

Caption by: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Mega

Sure Mega comes with 50GB of free storage, but it's also slower than sludge. Of all these services, even with so much free storage, this is the one I like least.

Published: February 25, 2013 -- 15:25 GMT (07:25 PST)

Photo by: ZDNet

Caption by: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Microsoft SkyDrive

It's not as universally useful as Dropbox, but if you're a Windows user, SkyDrive is the service for you. Just be a little wary of the feature that lets you upload files remotely from a PC into SkyDrive.

Published: February 25, 2013 -- 15:25 GMT (07:25 PST)

Photo by: ZDNet

Caption by: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

SpiderOak

If file privacy is your top concern, then SpiderOak is the service for you.

Published: February 25, 2013 -- 15:25 GMT (07:25 PST)

Photo by: ZDNet

Caption by: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Ubuntu One

It doesn't always work well with Windows, but Ubuntu One is a great cloud storage service for Ubuntu Linux users.

Browse 10 cloud storage services

Let's take a quick look at the 10 most important personal cloud storage services.

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Microsoft SkyDrive

It's not as universally useful as Dropbox, but if you're a Windows user, SkyDrive is the service for you. Just be a little wary of the feature that lets you upload files remotely from a PC into SkyDrive.